Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1887-09-21
DEATH OF A PARIS NIIsER.
The Treasure Chamber Unearthed in
the Place Saint Gervais.

If you had been standing In front OF
the queer old church of Saint GervaIs
at about l O'Clock on recent after
noon you would have seen a funeral
procession issue from a house hidden
away in a corner of the place and
halt in front of the sacred portals.
A very humble procession, indeed,
of what is known to Parislans as the
''eighth class" A hearse reduced to
its simplest expression, one mourning
carriage and a solitary mourner-the
concierge OF the dead mans house.
The small deal coffin in the hearse
did not give much trouble to the Pom
pes Funebres gentlemen, nor did the
priests put themselves out much over
the funeral service. In very few
moments the mass was scrambled
through, the gentlemen OF the Pompes
Funebre5 had showed the coffin back
into the hearse, and all that was NOR
tai of NJ. DeniZot, RENTER, was jog
ging slowly away to the cemetery.
In the quarter they called him
"Papa Denizot." a queer, crusty,
lonely little man, who stunned the
advances of his neighbors and shrank
from answering the questions which
they sometimes ventured TO put to him
about his past. At first, when he set
tied down at 10 Rue de Brosses, four
teen years ago, his taciturnity gave
rise to a great deal of gossip. But
gradually people got used TO his odd +,
shy ways, and ceased to speculate
about him.
After all he was very harmless
creature, and if he chose to live alone,
''comme un ours, as they said, why
that was his business.
He was poor. Oh, very poor, evil
dently.
He rented one wretched little room
on the top floor OF the dingy house at
the side of the church. A chair or
two, u cheap iron bedstead, table and
few prints on the wall-that was all
his furniture. No one ever climbed
the winding staircase to pay him a
vls!t-no one but the grumpy wife of
the concierge, who slept in the stufy
hole on the entresol. He was alone.
Every morning he would shuttle
down the stairs and through the
place, dressed in the same shabby OLD
gray overcoat. He had a curious
walk and an ond way of twisting his
back about. Usually big bunch OF
trinkets dangled from his trousers
pockets.
Presently they would see him
shufiling into a bouillon to buy q
scrap of meat and a little soup for
breakfast. After that he vanished fol
the day, and no more was heard OF
HIM until nightfall.
Often the concierge used to ask him
why he did not get some one to look
after him.
You'll go off in your sleep some
of these days. said the concierge
land nobody will know of it,
| But he shook his head. How cOull
he afford TO pay any one to look afte
him2 He was so very poor and he hal
no relatives.
On Sunday morning he did not com;
| down stairs as usual. The cOnclerg,
knocked At his door, and getting III
answer burst it open. Papa Deui
Zot" lay dead III his bed,
| We'll" said the concierge, who tol
| Galingani the story, II fetched the 20
lice and they overhauled Papa DenI-
Zot's' effects On shaking the table
which stood near his bed they heard
the chink of money. They pulled the
drawer out.
"It was full of gold. Pile after
pile, neatly wrapped in paper 4
thousand francs-1O, ,0O0-5O-SO, ,OO(
francs, IN bright gold napoleonsl
They searched the mattress and
the cupboards and found more napo.
Icons. Altogether l00, 600 francs were
stored away IN that garret. Papa
DenIzot,' whom the people had pIued
in his lifetime, was rich. Papa Den.
| izot' had shares and notes and gold
And all the while he lodged with us
we never suspected it,
Papa DeniZot's' fortune will be
kept for time to give the missing
heirs chance of making their claims.
If, at the end of the legal delay, nC
application has been made for it the
miser's money will be conhscated by
the government.